favourites

Ive decided to post November and December together for this favorites post as November is long gone and December is just about over too.

Vitamin E face mist from The Body Shop. Im sure Ive mentioned this pastel pink beauty before, but she needs another mention. Its summer and it’s hot and this is all I want on my face at the moment. Its moisturising, it keeps my skin looking fresh and bright so Im a happy camper.

Cute christmas cards, this one was from a set I got from In Good Company. They come with tiny temporary tattoos as well. So festive.

Pretty jewelry “Catherine” bracelet from Cardies. This is a gift I picked out for my mom on my little brother’s behalf. He’s 3 and only wants to buy diggers and trucks for everyone so I had to intervene here…

Glitter filled baubles from H&M, these seem to be really popular this year, and the more I look, the more I seem to find them. I love glitter and I wish everything was filled with glitter. I’m considering hanging the gold one in my car when I take my tree down this year actually.

The white one has two beautiful feathers inside of it, and makes for a delicate and elegant baubale.

Wrapped gifts, this year I wrapped all my gifts early and I’ve been thanking myself ever since.

“Well done Courtney for getting it together this year, you have no need to go to any crowded shopping centres or inflict any form of stress or anxiety upon yourself. You have all this time to yourself now, good on you.”

I chose all kinds of pretty wrapping papers and then finished my gifts off with cute tags and twine bows.

There you have all my favorites for these past two months. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post

*wooly hat, I’ve only seen the mistake now, and don’t have the original image saved to change that. Zara perfume mini- This is the cutest little bottle and a lovely little gift for someone or just to keep in your bag, the only issue I have with it is that it isn’t a spray, you have to empty out a drop or so, carefully, which is tricky on the go.

Lush lemon cuticle butter- This has been wonderful for winter hands

Lush Marilyn hair treatment- My hair is bleached, and this is a perfect treatment for blonde hair. It works as a toner and conditioner.

Lush Rose Jam shampoo bar- This smells like candy and Im obsessed. I find that shampoo bars last a whole lot longer than liquid shampoo, they are expensive, but well worth it considering how long they last.

Forever 21 floral hairbrush- I had no need for another hair brush, this one just looks cute and pretty.

Accesorize (kids section) hair clips- These are smaller clips than usual, which are nice for clipping away a fringe or disobedient stray hairs.

Is everyone hanging out without me -Mindy Kaling- Hilarious book, I love The Mindy Project and this doesn’t dissapoint.

Cotton on Kids pom-pom beanie (I have a small head) – Again I had no real need for another beanie, this one was pink, cheap, pretty and fits my small head nicely.

Pink spotted Pjs- same as the beanie and the hairbrush, Im a sucker for pretty pink things…

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, let me know in the comments if you’ve tried any of these things yourself

I’m not entirely sure when my last favourites post was, I think it was february? Anyway here’s the collection of items I’ve been loving for the past little while. I decided to arrange and photograph them differently this time, let me know if you like them better this way.

Strawberry lemonade – I very seldom actually drink cool drinks, or anything other than water, or the occasional vitamin water, but this was really good, it’s made with Sabrosa strawberries which are the best ones in my opinion.

Easter Chocolates – Im currently doing the Cape Town Vegan Challenge, so Im only able to eat dairy free, dark chocolates, which isn’t all that bad since dark chocolate is my favourite anyway.

Tiny Cactus – I had seen a beautiful cactus (cacti?) garden on Tumblr the other evening, and planned to make one of my own, so far I only have two tiny baby little cactus plants. I’ll do a “how-to” post when I actually put them all together into a garden.

Orly glitter nail polish – I have magpie-like tendancies… This one is called “shine on crazy diamond”

DKNY- Be delicious, Fresh Blossom (the pink one) I have the pink one, my mom has the green and we are both after the gold one now, to me all 3 are absolute winners and I think I love them all equally, this is a gorgeous, light and floral fragrance that Ive been wearing almost every day.

Not that kind of girl – Lena Dunham, Lena as in from the ‘Girls’ series. She’s hilarious, I don’t want to give too much away about the book, but it was just the sort of life-advice every 20-something-year-old woman needs. I laughed, I laughed until I cried (the bit about eating bread in the shower, oh how I can relate!!) I cried, I laughed some more and then I really sat down and had a good long think about an entire range of life topics. I can highly recommend this book to anyone.

Yes Please – Amy Poehler, I grew up with Amy being on SNL and now I watch her web series, “Smart girls” I really can admire the work she has done, and still continues to do within the entertainment industry, particularly in changing the way women are portrayed and cast in the media. Her book is a candid and open look into her life thus far and shows us all exactly what makes her who she is. Another great read that comes highly recommended from me. You can have a look at the Smart Girls website by clicking here.

That’s all I can think of right now- Quick update, I finally got around to doing my driver’s test and I passed! the notice to collect my license card came in the post today, I’ve actually had my temporary license for quite a while now, it just didn’t seem real until today, so I thought I would share the news

December has just flown by really fast. It seemed like just the other day I started with my “12 days of christmas” gifts on December 1st. I then flew off to visit my grandparents from my dad’s side of the family, only to fly back home and have my grandparents from my mom’s side arrive the next day. Before I knew it, it was Christmas Eve and now it’s New Years Eve.

After a super busy month, here are the things Ive been loving in amongst all this chaos. A new laptop case, and headphones. My laptop case used to be pink, but the bottom section cracked and that was kind of the end of the case. I searched for quite a while for this one as I wanted a clear case that wasn’t rubbery and soft, as I prefer the snap on hard shells. I then bought these headphones from Typo as they had a sale on them, I love the mint blue colour and they’re really comfy, despite making me look like a massive dork when I wear them. A beautiful friend of mine gave me this little lemon print purse as a christmas gift and I looove it. It snaps open and closed so it’s much easier to use than a pouch with a clasp or zip. I use it for my money, bank card, bus card, coins, lip ice ect. Everything I need fits nicely into it and I think the lemons look bright and cheerful. Stationery. I love stationery bits and bobs and I now don’t really have school as an excuse to buy a ridiculous amount of stationery each year. I got this little box set at the Typo sale as well, I thought I could get away with it as pins and paperclips are quite grown up stationery things to have…

Its also in mint blue and comes in a box decorated with hot air balloons so I really couldn’t resist. I have a thing for coffee mugs. Most of the mugs in our house belong to me or were bought by me. I just love a new mug, a lot.

This was one I bought a week or so ago, I just like the ombre pink and it also happened to match my nails on the day I photographed it.

Dalia’s

My mom bought this Dalia as these flowers remind her of her Aunty Violet who has passed away. I think these are such happy, cheerful looking flowers and the whole family has really been enjoying this little treasure.Sunflowers. Ive given up on my seeds ever growing into sunflowers, I think my little brother dug them all up, or birds ate them, or my cat could have dug them up too. So I went and bought myself a dwarf sunflower and put it into a moss pot. Since I got it, 4 little sunflowers have opened up and I think there are 2 more little buds to come. Sunflowers have always brought me a lot of joy and this is a very happy looking plant so Im glad I got it.

That’s the end of my favourites list for the month, what have you been loving this month?

Here are my favourites for the month of November. It’s been a very busy month with the end of school approaching fast, thankfully I am no longer a student, but working behind the scenes has been just as stressful this year. I am glad things are winding down now. The body shop has a glazed apple range out this year. I don’t know if it’s new, I certainly didn’t see it out last year. It’s a sweet, fruity fragrance that Im really loving at the moment. keeping with the fruit theme…. my handbag has been a mess of paperwork and books this month and this phone case is actually the only way I can find my phone in amongst the mess of it all. After a visit to the dermatologist, Ive decided that sunshine is officially not for me. Ive been looking into self tanners as a safer option for my skin. The Caribbean tan range has been wonderful to use. I use the A shade all over my body and arms, and I use the B shade for my legs as it is slightly darker. The can gives me about a month and a half worth of tanning. I top my tan up every week or so. A wallet designed and made by a friend of mine, Norman. The cards go in between the wood and notes go inside the black rubber band. Its compact enough to carry in your hand or pocket. Im enjoying this a great deal. His website is in the photo below if you would like to contact him for one.

Christmas! I can finally put up my christmas tree and that makes me incredibly happy.

I bought this tree from a department store, It actually was a display piece and wasn’t for sale. After some begging and pleading they sold it to me, fully decorated and all, we drove it to my gran’s house in the back of her Citi Golf as we were staying with her for christmas. I then had to fly home with the tree under my arm as my carry-on luggage. Nobody was impressed with me. Nevertheless its home and I own a beautiful pastel pink tree.

This post calls this a makeover, but in reality I only spent R150 and did some major cleaning up around here.

These first two photo’s show what the space looked like before, it was cluttered. I decided to take everything down from the walls and start over.

I put up some decorative ceiling tiles on the walls, they added a bit of texture, without being too distracting and loud. I got two packs from a DIY shop. They are light and made from polystyrene. This particular pack was in a pearly pink colour and I left them as is, you could also paint them if you wanted to.

Next I recovered my grey pin board with some thick white fabric. This was to make the pin board look fresher and cleaner in the space. I put up some of my favourite quotes and drawings, as well as some decorated pegs.

The left hand side of my desk is where these pink drawers are, they were a huge mess before, but I tidied them and labeled the drawers so things stay tidy.

The right hand side is where my most used stationery is, I sorted pens and markers into pretty glass jars. I decided to use a glass cake stand here, for a bit of height, I am also storing some things like tape rolls and staplers underneath the cake stand where they can’t be easily seen.

I added in a yellow milk carton for colour and then added some spaces for fresh flowers. I hope this was inspiring, a complete makeover can be done using just the items you already have and you don’t need to spend huge amounts of money.

Here are the things Ive been loving all through October, enjoy! “So white” from Lush, Ive actually been using it as a bubble bath. It smells like a million crisp granny smith apples have been squashed into this bottle and I love the scent. Gerbers. Ive never been able to grow them myself as they are quite fussy little plants, so I pick them up wherever I can, this one is in the most beautiful pastel pink. Glitter nail polish, it’s festive enough for my christmas spirit to be satisfied, but not too festive that everyone complains about me getting into the christmas spirit too early (as I usually do, christmas starts in mid-October for me) A JR Tolkien quote that’s up on my wall above my desk. My bed, a bit of an odd one but I dip-dyed some white bedding and I really love the way it turned out, my bed is also my all time favourite place to be. I do struggle to sleep unless the “conditions” are absolutely perfect and I think Ive got a good thing going here now. I am enjoying the space and really feeling at peace here. Christmas. I love christmas. I will do a blog post on this soon and why I love christmas so much. This was a beautiful tin I received as a gift a few weeks ago, it’s just so sweet, and there’s a cat on it too!

**I have also been enjoying Spirulina powder and Acai berry powder in my smoothies and food this month, Im definitely feeling healthier and stronger with these two additions to my diet- More on this soon

1. Flowers, these ones in particular I am in love with at the moment, but flowers in general make me happy and brighten my day every time I see them. 2. Bit of an odd story behind this one, but this blanket is very similar to the one I was wrapped up in as a baby when I spent a large amount of time in the hospital. I was a very sick baby and I went through a major operation at 6 months old. These kinds of blankets give me a sense of comfort and security. Unfortunately I can only ever find baby-sized ones so this is a very small blanket, but I still enjoy it nonetheless. 3. For me, Snow Fairy is the smell of christmas. Christmas is officially here when Snow Fairy is out. This is a Lush Cosmetics shower gel that comes out around late October as part of their Christmas range. I use it as a bubble bath and me-oh-my its fabbity fab. I LOVE christmas time, I am very passionate about the festive season and I wait all year for it to come around again. This smells like candy, candy floss, childhood and happiness (and possibly Diabetes, this is a very sickly sweet smell)

4. A plaque I got the other day, I see it as I wake up in the mornings. It speaks for itself really, I don’t need to go on here… 5. A gift my mom made for me. She punched out special words from an old dictionary that have a meaning to either me or her. This was such a beautiful and thoughtful gift.

I won’t go through all of the words but one of them is “Pearl” which is both a negative thing “The pearl of great price” or a positive thing as pearls are beautiful but they’re made from tiny grains of sand. Pearls also symbolise hard work paying off and that it may take some time and effort for something beautiful to be created in the end. Pearl is also a name I may consider as a daughter’s name, or at least a middle name. 5. A letter from my gran, she wrote this little poem down for me when I was going through quite a rough patch, I used to keep it with me, now it’s up on my bedroom wall. It reads:

“I wish I was a glow-worm, a glow worms’ never glum, ’cause how can you be grumpy, when the sun shines out your bum?”

It reminded me to smile more often and take life a little less seriously. 6. and here is a photograph of her and I, back when she was a Hipster (I mean look at that jersey!) and I had dark hair. 7. and last but not least, my adventure shoes. If I had “lucky shoes” or a favourite pair, this would be them. Ive wanted a pair of pink converse for years and years, it has been difficult to get my hands on them, being in South Africa. However, earlier this year these beauties finally crossed my path and Im so happy they did. Good things always seem to happen in these shoes, so they’re my adventuring shoes, for all of life’s adventures.

Those are my favourites for now, I hope you enjoyed reading this. Have a wonderful day